Building and Managing Your Ideal Marketing Team
Solution Factors • February 5, 2025
Building and Managing Your Ideal Marketing Team
Although the operational route to growth success in marketing and fundraising changes, human nature doesn’t. This has been the only constant throughout my career, which began at Zeneca, before it had a website, and when digital marketing wasn’t a ‘thing’. Google didn’t exist and the dial-up internet connection beeped and crackled. Attachments took hours to download (faxing was quicker), most emails were printed out and many directors had PAs.
Timeless secrets of successful marketing and fundraising teams
Joining a marketing team just before email and websites really took off has meant that I’ve worked through several waves of digital marketing and fundraising revolutions. Over the years, particularly as a communications and marketing consultant, I’ve helped a lot of businesses and charities build their marketing teams to increase their income.
Over this time, I’ve noticed some precious, timeless assets in in-house marketing departments of rapidly growing organisations.
Over this time, I’ve noticed some precious, timeless assets in in-house marketing departments of rapidly growing organisations.
The desirables and the expectations
There’s a sliding scale of what is desired and what is expected of marketing and fundraising departments. It broadly depends on the experience and expertise of the organisation’s leadership, and the accuracy of information that is fed into Board and senior management meetings.
If you’re a marketing or fundraising manager or director, you are responsible for ensuring that data is understood by all your immediate stakeholders, and that the difference between ‘expected’ and ‘aspirational’ results is made clear.
In management discussions, you need your colleagues to understand – and retain – substantial amounts of complex information. As we are all only human, it’s sensible to summarise the relevant section of your marketing or fundraising plan, along with your expectations and the desired outcomes, on a document that you can share.
If you’re a marketing or fundraising manager or director, you are responsible for ensuring that data is understood by all your immediate stakeholders, and that the difference between ‘expected’ and ‘aspirational’ results is made clear.
In management discussions, you need your colleagues to understand – and retain – substantial amounts of complex information. As we are all only human, it’s sensible to summarise the relevant section of your marketing or fundraising plan, along with your expectations and the desired outcomes, on a document that you can share.
Statistics fuelling assumptions
As a marketing and/or fundraising team leader, you are solely responsible for the level and the integrity of the data you present – and the interpretation you provide of this. Recording where and how statistics were sourced, and the calculations used, is vital.
You will need to provide a direct comparison in the future (e.g. year-on-year donations or sales), so make sure you have used a reporting method that you can easily repeat.
Although this sounds rudimentary, I frequently come across cases where this has been forgotten. If this is left unflagged, it would impact pivotal senior management decisions. Here are a few examples:
Unique and returning visitors: I’ve seen reports in which, over time, assumptions about uniqueness, perhaps with a pinch of wishful thinking, have been adopted as facts. In these instances, ‘visitors’ were labelled as ‘unique’, meaning first-time visitors. This has applied to both online visitors and physical visitors attending in-person events.
When you are presented with visitor data sets that will have a bearing on the decisions you make, it is vital to trace them back to source to confirm if the assumptions made are correct. In charities, this directly affects reports to major donors and business cases in funding applications. When marketing in any type of organisation, accuracy is essential for benchmarking, planning, then monitoring the success of each element of the plan.
Counting sales and donations, without monitoring leads: Yes, this still happens, particularly where data is siloed, meaning that two departments are keeping separate records rather than both updating a single system. If a marketing or fundraising team is generating and following up leads, but a second team wins the sale or completes the donation, and they aren’t sharing the same real-time CRM system or similar, there is room for error.
Conversion rates are the number of sales or donations divided by the total number of leads, multiplied by 100. These important figures help you to either save or make money. They indicate if campaigns are being noticed and if they are reaching the right individuals with the right messages or offers.
If leads are not counted and monitored through to closure, both growth and market share are lost to competitors. Without this data, incorrect assumptions are made about trends, which leads to poor decision-making.
You will need to provide a direct comparison in the future (e.g. year-on-year donations or sales), so make sure you have used a reporting method that you can easily repeat.
Although this sounds rudimentary, I frequently come across cases where this has been forgotten. If this is left unflagged, it would impact pivotal senior management decisions. Here are a few examples:
Unique and returning visitors: I’ve seen reports in which, over time, assumptions about uniqueness, perhaps with a pinch of wishful thinking, have been adopted as facts. In these instances, ‘visitors’ were labelled as ‘unique’, meaning first-time visitors. This has applied to both online visitors and physical visitors attending in-person events.
When you are presented with visitor data sets that will have a bearing on the decisions you make, it is vital to trace them back to source to confirm if the assumptions made are correct. In charities, this directly affects reports to major donors and business cases in funding applications. When marketing in any type of organisation, accuracy is essential for benchmarking, planning, then monitoring the success of each element of the plan.
Counting sales and donations, without monitoring leads: Yes, this still happens, particularly where data is siloed, meaning that two departments are keeping separate records rather than both updating a single system. If a marketing or fundraising team is generating and following up leads, but a second team wins the sale or completes the donation, and they aren’t sharing the same real-time CRM system or similar, there is room for error.
Conversion rates are the number of sales or donations divided by the total number of leads, multiplied by 100. These important figures help you to either save or make money. They indicate if campaigns are being noticed and if they are reaching the right individuals with the right messages or offers.
If leads are not counted and monitored through to closure, both growth and market share are lost to competitors. Without this data, incorrect assumptions are made about trends, which leads to poor decision-making.
The vision is the marketing and fundraising team’s eye-opener
Those in your fundraising and marketing team can either catch your vision, or fail to grasp it, and this is partly down to the person with the vision, and how they communicate their vision. Rule 1: write it down. Rule 2: be enthusiastic about it and talk about it – a lot. If members of fundraising and marketing teams can work together while living and breathing the vision, their enthusiasm and message will rub off on other staff.
Delivering strategic goals edges you towards your vision, so display it in a prominent place wh ere it can be seen by all staff.
Although I have witnessed a vision being transferred to the rest of the workforce in companies I have worked with, I cannot pretend this is my pearl of wisdom. One of the earliest clear references I’ve come across is by a visionary called Habakkuk and it can be found in the Bible. Referring to a vision, it advises: ‘Write it out in big block letters so it can be read on the run.’
Delivering strategic goals edges you towards your vision, so display it in a prominent place wh ere it can be seen by all staff.
Although I have witnessed a vision being transferred to the rest of the workforce in companies I have worked with, I cannot pretend this is my pearl of wisdom. One of the earliest clear references I’ve come across is by a visionary called Habakkuk and it can be found in the Bible. Referring to a vision, it advises: ‘Write it out in big block letters so it can be read on the run.’
Your ideal fundraising or marketing team
This section is about building and managing a marketing and fundraising team. It does not describe a recruitment process or management model; instead, it describes the frequently overlooked elements in between, which are as essential as cement is to building a strong, lasting wall.
Taking an interest in each other's background
It saves a lot of time in the long run if your fundraising and marketing team members can hear about each other’s professional experience. Knowing which colleague might be able to help with a problem reduces the time it takes to overcome a challenge, and mitigates risk.
Digital marketers need learning time
Some of the best digital marketing staff are self-educators who are so passionate about their craft, they work on their personal development at every opportunity. They are curiosity-led and competitive. They don’t wait for somebody to book them on a course starting in eight weeks’; instead they are on YouTube and asking questions in online communities.
Providing they are on schedule with planned tasks, I recommend letting them get on with their self-development. Just offer guidance from time to time to help keep them on track. This is an important part of managing a marketing team well.
If you are still wondering if you can allow staff time to develop new skills in cutting-edge technology, please ask yourself who in your team will identify and harness new marketing and fundraising using AI.
Providing they are on schedule with planned tasks, I recommend letting them get on with their self-development. Just offer guidance from time to time to help keep them on track. This is an important part of managing a marketing team well.
If you are still wondering if you can allow staff time to develop new skills in cutting-edge technology, please ask yourself who in your team will identify and harness new marketing and fundraising using AI.
Talking vs typing
If you have the most effective real-time systems with which to run your operation, what could possibly go wrong? Honest discussions about avoiding or solving problems, or sticking points within your workflow, helps prevent overruns and delivery failures. These discussions often also reveal opportunities.
Unfortunately, working long hours means that marketers and fundraisers often resort to email rather than phone calls. Encourage quick conversations in person or on whatever platform you use within office hours.
Foreseeing and discussing problems and opportunities before they arrive, in an honest and transparent working environment, leads to a slick, agile marketing department. Ironically, this was routine practice when I started my career, because nobody in the company had been given an email address (yet).
Unfortunately, working long hours means that marketers and fundraisers often resort to email rather than phone calls. Encourage quick conversations in person or on whatever platform you use within office hours.
Foreseeing and discussing problems and opportunities before they arrive, in an honest and transparent working environment, leads to a slick, agile marketing department. Ironically, this was routine practice when I started my career, because nobody in the company had been given an email address (yet).
Fundraising and marketing team ideals
Everyone in your team should aim to complete campaigns on schedule, so they are not delayed or left unfinished, so revenue and new opportunities don’t leak out of the end of each financial year. Each project on your plan should be delivered, on time, contributing to moving your organisation towards its strategic goals.
Thinking about the future
Time needs to be allocated to perfect and adopt the methodologies to make use of new opportunities. Unfortunately, this doesn’t currently appear in many workflow charts… And then there is AI, which is causing the next wave of change in marketing and fundraising.
Small steps
All these things are only achievable by a long series of small steps. Little by little, day by day you will make progress. Take heart: if you keep this up, in a few years you will look back and see that all the small steps have contributed to a mammoth achievements.
Building Momentum Through Business Vision As the business and charity landscape morphs into its new normal after two years of upheaval, many directors want to reinvigorate their business strategies and vision. As a marketing consultant and external marketing director, I’m frequently included in these discussions and thought it would be helpful to share some suggestions.
I’ve spent more than 20 years providing PR and marketing services to companies and charities. Simon Badman, an associate, recently suggested that I write a blog post to explain how I help make success happen from behind the scenes. I’ve always got away with putting other people in the spotlight rather than myself. But now the time has come for me to step out and take a bow, to introduce my updated, redesigned website… It even includes my photo. I unashamedly publicise my clients ’ successes using my PR and marketing services, over my own public profile.
